An Elementary School
Classroom In A Slum
Stephen Spender
Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.
Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor.
The tall girl with her weighed-down head.
The paper-seeming boy, with rat’s eyes.
The stunted, unlucky heir of twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease.
His lesson, from his desk.
At back of the dim class once unnoted, sweet and young.
His eyes live in a dream, of squirrel game, in tree room, other than this.
The children in the slum school are cut off from various natural pleasures which the world has to offer. The faces of these children look like rootless weeds. A weed is an unwanted plant which is promptly rooted out from the farm. The poet has compared these children with rootless weeds which mean these children are unwanted and have been uprooted so that they could die a painful death. The lifeless hair of such a pupil is torn around their pale faces. Faces of slum children can be pale because of malnutrition or because of some disease.
There is a tall girl who is continuously keeping her head down as if burdened by the weight of her life.
There is a boy who is as thin as paper and who has a rat’s eyes. Rat’s eyes appear to be bulged out. The boy’s eyes are bulging because of malnourishment.
There is a boy suffering from twisted bones as he is suffering from a hereditary disease. The poet says that as he has inherited a disease from his parents, he is reciting the dreaded disease his father is suffering from.
There is a boy at the back of the dim class. He is being unnoticed because he is at the backbench and is under dim light. Nevertheless, the boy is sweet and young and his eyes are dreaming of another world where a squirrel is playing games in tree room.
On sour cream walls, donations.
Shakespeare’s head, cloudless at dawn, civilised home riding all cities.
Belled, flowery, Tryolese valley.
Open-handed map awarding the world its world.
And yet, for these children, these windows not this map, their world,
Where all their future’s painted with a fog.
The walls of the classroom are painted with a dull cream colour, as if to portray the gloomy conditions of a slum. The walls are decorated with various photos, like that of Shakespeare, of sunrise, beautiful homes of a city, a beautiful valley full of flowers, a world map showing different continents and oceans. But the world of slum children is not what is depicted in the world map or in various photos. Their world is outside the window in the wall, but the fog outside the window is signifying their bleak future.
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky
Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.
Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example,
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night?
Their world is a far cry from the beautiful rivers, dresses and stars. Shakespeare appears to be wickedly smiling at their sorry state. The map is totally unrelated to the conditions they live in. The ships and sun on a photo are tempting them to steal some pleasure from the life. But their world is confined to a narrow alley that is sealed with dark grey sky, closing all the escape routes. The life of such children is doomed to turn in their cramped tenements and is doomed to travel from fog to endless night. The ray of hope is nowhere in sight for these children.
On their slag heap, these children
Wear skins peeled through by bones and spectacles of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones.
All of their time and space are foggy slum.
So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.
Unless, governor, inspector, visitor,
This map becomes their window and these windows
That shut upon their lives like catacombs,
Break O break open till they break the town
And show the children to green fields, and make their world
Run azure on gold sands, and let their tongues
Run naked into books the white and green leaves open
History theirs whose language is the sun.
The emaciated children appear like heaps of gunny sacks. Some of them are wearing spectacles with rims of mended frame which have been twisted out of shape because of several rounds of self-repair. The broken glasses on the spectacles look like shards of glass left on stones and pebbles.
Their time and life is nothing but fog-filled. So, there is a need to blot the world map with slums as big as doom. It is only after showing the realities of slum that the world map will show the true picture of their life. The current map is their current window to the outside world. But the window is shutting the light out for them the way a stone slab shuts the light out of a tomb. There is a need to break such windows so that the slum children can be shown the beauty of the green fields and shall be able to run on the golden sands. This will allow the slum children to savour what is written on the pages of their books.
The poet says that history is theirs whose language is the sun. This means that until and unless one gets the light of knowledge and wisdom one cannot make history.
Think It Out
Question 1: The tall girl with her head weighed down means the girl
- Is ill and exhausted
- Has her head bent with shame
- Has untidy hair
Answer: (a) Is ill and exhausted
Question 2: The paper-seeming boy with rat’s eyes means the boy is
- Silly and secretive
- Thin, hungry and weak
- Unpleasant looking
Answer: (b) Thin, hungry and weak
Question 3: The stunted, unlucky heir of twisted bones means the boy
- Has an inherited disability
- Was short and bony
Answer: (a) Has inherited disability
Question 4: His eyes live in a dream. A squirrel’s game, in the tree room other than this means the boy is
- Full of hope in the future
- Mentally ill
- Distracted from the lesson
Answer: (a) Full of hope in the future
Question 5: The children’s faces are compared to ‘rootless weeds’. This means they
- Are insecure
- Are ill-fed
- Are wasters
Answer: (a) Are insecure
Question 6: What do you think is the colour of ‘sour cream’? Why do you think the poet has used this expression to describe the classroom walls?
Answer: The sour cream is of dull yellow colour, almost off-white. The classroom walls are bearing no semblance of brightness and hope. So, the poet has used this expression to describe the classroom walls.
Question 7: The walls of the classroom are decorated with the pictures of ‘Shakespeare’, ‘buildings with domes’, ‘world maps’ and ‘beautiful valleys’. How do these contrast with the world of these children?
Answer: Their world is a far cry from the beautiful rivers, dresses and stars. Shakespeare appears to be wickedly smiling at their sorry state. The map is totally unrelated to the conditions they live in. The ships and sun on a photo are tempting them to steal some pleasure from the life. But their world is confined to a narrow alley that is sealed with dark grey sky, closing all the escape routes. The life of such children is doomed to turn in their cramped tenements and is doomed to travel from fog to endless night. The ray of hope is nowhere in sight for these children.
Question 8: What does the poet want for the children of the slums? How can their lives be made to change?
Answer: Their time and life is nothing but fog-filled. So, there is a need to blot the world map with slums as big as doom. It is only after showing the realities of slum that the world map will show the true picture of their life. The current map is their current window to the outside world. But the window is shutting the light out for them the way a stone slab shuts the light out of a tomb. There is a need to break such windows so that the slum children can be shown the beauty of the green fields and shall be able to run on the golden sands. This will allow the slum children to savour what is written on the pages of their books.